https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=klpDHn8viX8
The Holographic Universe Explained - Space Time

----------------------

we live in a universe with three

00:02
dimensions of space man one of time
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up-down left-right and forward back and
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past and future
00:08
three plus one dimensions or so our
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primitive Pleistocene evolved brains
00:13
find it useful to believe and we cling
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to this intuition even as physics shows
00:18
us that this view of reality may be only
00:21
a very narrow perception one of the most
00:24
startling possibilities is that our
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three plus one dimensional universe may
00:29
be better described as resulting from a
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spacetime one dimension lower like a
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hologram projected from a surface
00:36
infinitely far away the holographic
00:44
principle emerged from many subtle clues
00:47
clues discovered over decades of
00:49
theoretical exploration of the universe
00:51
over the past several months on
00:53
space-time we've seen those clues we've
00:57
built the foundations needed to glimpse
00:59
the true meaning of the holographic
01:01
principle we've moved from quantum field
01:04
theory to black hole thermodynamics to
01:06
string theory we've made a background
01:09
playlist if you want to start from
01:10
scratch and I especially recommend
01:12
catching last week's episode but this is
01:16
tough material so let's do a review
01:19
the story started with black holes and
01:21
with jacob bekenstein who derived an
01:24
equation to describe their entropy a
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black hole entropy represents the amount
01:30
of quantum information of everything
01:32
that ever fell into it
01:34
this bekenstein bound represents the
01:37
maximum possible entropy / information
01:39
of any volume of space oddly that
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maximum is proportional to the surface
01:46
area of that space not its volume and
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that was surprising
01:50
surely the information in a volume of
01:52
space depends on that volume like one
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bit per infinitesimal voxel not one bit
01:59
per pixel on the surface Stephen Hawking
02:02
confirmed that bekenstein bound by
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calculating the amount of information
02:06
leaked by a black hole as it evaporates
02:09
in Hawking radiation his discovery of
02:12
Hawking radiation led to the black hole
02:15
information paradox because this
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radiation was expected to erase the
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quantum information of everything that
02:21
fell into the black hole but destroying
02:24
quantum information would break the
02:26
foundations of quantum mechanics hence
02:28
the paradox this conundrum inspired
02:31
Gerard 'T Hooft to show that the
02:33
information of all material that fell
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into the black hole could be imprinted
02:38
on that outgoing Hawking radiation and
02:40
while it's waiting to be radiated that
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information should be encoded on the
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event horizon of the black hole nice
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solution the
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new paradox things that fall into a
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black hole do actually experience
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crossing the event horizon and being
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inside the black hole so the interior of
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the black hole has a dual existence from
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the point of view of outside observers
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its contents are smeared into 2d on that
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surface but from the POV of anyone
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falling in they are definitely inside
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the black hole plummeting to their doom
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in full 3d glory this is the first
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glimpse of a holographic space-time a 2d
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surface that encodes the properties of
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the 3-d interior Gerard 'T Hooft along with
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leonard susskind extrapolated this to
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propose that not only is any surface
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sufficient to describe the locations of
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all particles in its volume but also the
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full machinery of that volume can exist
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on the surface all degrees of freedom
03:44
needed to describe the behavior of
03:46
everything within but it's one thing for
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this stuff to fit on the surface but how
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is it actually encoded how does the 2d
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surface store information about that
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extra dimension and how do interactions
04:01
on that surface correspond to
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interactions in the volume leonard
04:06
susskind laid out the first steps to how
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this could be achieved using string
04:10
theory but ultimately it was Juan Maldacena
04:14
who figured out a concrete string
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theoretic realization of the holographic
04:18
principle with ads CFT correspondence
04:23
though I'm getting ahead of myself let's
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ignore string theory for the moment and
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just think about how to create an extra
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dimension let's say we start with a
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plane a flat 2d space-time now grid it
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up into a lattice of cells and make a
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set of rules about how those cells
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interact with each other
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those rules are a field theory the
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lattice itself is the field and the
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cells are some elementary component of
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the field
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but perhaps they're not the smallest
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possible component for now let's just
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say the size of those cells depend on
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how we're looking at the grid for
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example the resolution of our microscope
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or the power of our particle accelerator
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probably the rules between cells the
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field theory depends on this scale focus
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on a very small scale and we see a very
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fine grid that interacts according to
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one set of rules zoom out and we see a
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coarser grid with cells that are the
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average of smaller cells but which
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presumably interact via different rules
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or so you'd think but we're gonna add
05:32
something weird we're gonna say that our
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field theory is scale invariant we'll
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say that the rules are the same for
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small pixels or big pixels we see this
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scale invariance in fractal patterns
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where the rules defining structures
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repeat to infinitely large or small
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scales we also see it in string theory
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which I'll come back to a field theory
05:58
with this property is called a conformal
06:00
field theory in the last episode I said
06:03
that a conformal transformation is one
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that leaves all internal angles
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unchanged a conformal field theory has
06:10
this property for example you can change
06:13
the scale at every point on the grid
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separately and not change the internal
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angles or the shapes of the pixels which
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corresponds to not changing the rules of
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interaction by making this conformal
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field theory we've added a symmetry
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invariants under local changes in scale
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also known as a Weyl invariance this
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adds a degree of freedom everywhere like
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a new infinite number line at each of
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the 2d grid points objects on the 2d
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grid also have values on that number
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line they exist at a certain scale
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if objects at different scales don't
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tend to interact with each other
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then this new degree of freedom behaves
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like just any other dimension our 2d
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grid behaves like a 3d volume and we can
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treat it like one at least
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mathematically you might say il's not a
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real 3d grid because the 3rd dimension
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is fake but is it what is a dimension
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that a number line of possible values
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which a exists alongside the other
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dimensions but is independent of them B
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over which the rules of physics stay the
07:27
same and C imposes some kind of locality
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for example elements of that number line
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need to be next to each other to
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interact crudely this is how an extra
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dimension can be coded in a holographic
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universe but for the details we need
07:45
string theory even from the beginning
07:48
string theory had hints of this scale
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invariance and dimensional weirdness the
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first iteration of the theory around
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1970 tried to model the strong force
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between pairs of quarks maisons
08:01
and this strand of gluons that behaves
08:04
like a vibrating string a nice feature
08:07
of this model is that changing the
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length of the strand which defines the
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energy in the bond doesn't change the
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basic physics that means you can pretend
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string length slash energy is a separate
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dimension as a calculation trend the
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weird thing is that when you write the
08:24
quantum wave equation for the gluons
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strand with a length expressed as a
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separate dimension you get the wave
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equation for the graviton the quantum
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particle of gravity which is ridiculous
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given the puny energy scale of the
08:40
Maison gravitons shouldn't even exist
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there this and other glitches led to
08:45
string theory being abandoned as a model
08:47
for the strong force but it was quickly
08:50
rejigged to make it a theory of quantum
08:52
gravity and the scale invariance of the
08:55
strings became a central feature of string theory
08:58
fast forward a couple of decades to the
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90's we now have several versions of
09:03
string theory that try to explain how
09:05
vibrating strings can lead to the
09:07
familiar particles of the universe
09:09
these were tentatively united by Ed
09:12
Witten's and theory which showed that
09:14
different types of string and string
09:16
theories were all related by dualities a
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duality is when two seemingly different
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theories proved to represent the same
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underlying physical reality these arose
09:27
from the way string size and energy
09:30
scales could be rescaled but the
09:34
strangest string duality was still to come
09:36
with ADS CFT correspondence proposed by
09:40
argentinian physicist Juan Maldacena in
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1997 strange because it provided the
09:47
first concrete description of a
09:49
holographic universe
09:51
Maldacena imagined a set of string
09:54
theory objects called branes these are
09:57
like multi-dimensional strings the
09:59
can server as start and end points for
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strings but also as spaces embedded
10:04
within higher dimensions Maldacena
10:06
considered in geometrically flat 3d
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branes these branes are extremely close
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together basically overlapping the
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strings connected to these branes are
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scale invariant so their length and
10:19
energy can vary without changing the
10:21
physics under certain assumptions he
10:24
found that the resulting brane
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structure looks just like a Minkowski
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space time of 3 plus 1 dimensions on
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which there lived a field theory that
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arose from interactions between branes
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in itself that field theory wasn't
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stringy rather it was a quantum field
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theory like the ones that give us our
10:43
standard model of particle physics a
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Yang-Mills theory but with
10:47
supersymmetry added in it was also a
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conformal field theory a CFT so it was
10:54
invariant to the scaling of grid sizes
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this quality came from the energy scale
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invariance of the strings embedded in
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the construction of this space in good
11:05
old string theorist style
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Maldacena had to find a new spatial dimension
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that incorporated that invariant scale
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factor the 3d space became a 4d space
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well the original space was flat the new
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space had negative curvature who is a
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hyperbolic Anti-deSitter or AdS space
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the conformal field theory in the
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original space included no gravity but
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in the higher dimensional space gravity
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emerged revealing a full quantum theory
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of gravity this is the AdS CFT duality
11:39
as with the other dualities in string
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theory this one was extremely useful for
11:44
calculations when interactions in the
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lower dimensional field theory are
11:49
extremely strong we would say the fields
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are strongly coupled then the
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corresponding high dimensional
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gravitational structures would be weak
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and solvable
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conversely strong gravitational fields
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in the higher dimensional space like in
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black holes look like solvable
12:05
configurations of particles in the low D
12:07
space among other things this provided a
12:11
new resolution to the black hole
12:12
information paradox the information lost
12:15
in a black hole persists perfectly
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comfortably in the lower dimensional
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space and the techniques of AdS CFT
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correspondents are even extended to
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disparate fields like nuclear and
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condensed matter physics but the more
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startling implication of AdS CFT is
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that it's the first concrete realization
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of the holographic principle the lower
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dimensional CFT space is the surface of
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the AdS space because the field theory
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exists where that new dimension becomes
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infinite infinitely far away that's
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tough to imagine so let's go back to our
12:53
depiction of an infinite hyperbolic
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space from the last episode represent a
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2-d hyperbolic plane as a compactified
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map and it has an edge at least a
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mathematical one anyone inside the
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hyperbolic space still has to travel
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infinitely far to get to that edge
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now stack many maps to represent slices
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in time the resulting column has a
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geometrical flat and finite surface that
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is a space-time all on its own the rules
13:24
of interactions between cells on that
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surface is a quantum field theory but
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those rules translate to interactions in
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the volume in the bulk where it's a
13:33
theory of gravity AdS CFT is a hint that
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we may live in a holographic universe
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now AdS CFT doesn't represent this
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universe because our universe doesn't
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appear to be negatively curved AdS
13:48
space nor does it have four spatial
13:50
dimensions as in Maldacena's
13:52
calculation but there are efforts to
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generalize this to a universe more like
13:57
our own the question we now wrestle with
14:00
is this a series of mathematical clues
14:04
indicate that our universe may be
14:06
holographic or at least have a dual
14:09
representation in a lower dimension can
14:12
these just be crazy mathematical
14:15
coincidences maybe but perhaps our
14:19
familiar three plus one universe has an
14:21
alternative perhaps a more true
14:24
representation out there an abstract
14:28
mathematical surface infinitely far from
14:30
our location and from our intuition
14:33
projecting inwards our familiar holographic space-time

=====================================================

last week was the warm-up to today's episode

14:57
in which we looked at how infinite
14:59
space-time can have a finite boundary
15:01
and first up no psychedelics were
15:04
involved in making that episode despite
15:06
what people thought then the universe is
15:09
just that weird a few of you asked
15:11
whether our perceived universe is just
15:13
the surface of a higher dimensional
15:15
space so that's actually the opposite of
15:18
the proposition behind the holographic
15:20
principle we suggest that our perceived
15:22
universe is the volume but it can be encoded on its
15:26
lower dimensional surface in AdS CFT
15:29
correspondence the volume exhibits
15:32
gravity via type of string theory while
15:34
the surface exhibits no gravity only a
15:37
quantum field theory similar to the
15:39
field theory behind the standard model
15:40
part of the confusion comes from the
15:43
fact that Maldacena's derivation is for
15:45
a volume with four spatial dimensions
15:48
which would then have a three-d surface
15:50
so obviously that doesn't directly
15:52
correspond to our universe but there's
15:55
work to generalize it to the case of a
15:56
3d volume with a 2d surface related to
16:00
that music always asks whether according
16:03
to AdS CFT correspondence can we say
16:06
that there would be no gravity on the
16:08
surface of the 2 plus 1 Minkowski
16:11
space-time so first the surface in the
16:14
current AdS CFT space-time is three
16:17
plus one three spatial one temporal
16:19
dimensions as I just mentioned that
16:21
surface contains only a conformal field
16:24
theory and no gravity the strange
16:27
miracle of AdS CFT is that gravity
16:31
arises naturally when you add the extra
16:33
special dimension which ends up looking
16:35
like the volume contained by a 3d surface

ki9 asks whether the things we learn from

16:43
AdS CFT are applicable to our universe
16:46
given that our universe doesn't have
16:49
negative curvature well we don't know
16:52
for sure that it doesn't have negative
16:54
curvature just that any curvature
16:56
negative or positive is very weak
16:59
compared to our current ability to
17:01
measure it measurements of the geometry
17:03
of the universe indicate flatness but we
17:06
may never know whether it's truly flat
17:08
or just flat as far as we can see
17:12
several people were offended that I
17:14
dissed Chronicles of Riddick
17:16
well I want to be on record as saying
17:18
that pitch black was an artistic
17:19
masterpiece real mammal summarizes
17:22
my position best chronicles is the third
17:26
best Riddick movie but is still better
17:28
than any Marvel movie
17:30
and I'm sure saying this will cause no
17:32
further comments to Alito notices that
17:34
it's looking more and more likely that
17:36
Roger Penrose might literally be a Time
17:38
Lord in a separate comment midplane
17:41
wonderous states that sir Roger Penrose
17:43
is an unsung wizard so apparently we
17:47
can't agree on what genre Roger Penrose
17:49
belongs to personally I've always
17:51
thought of him as a Jedi Master
17:53
especially with all of that dubious
17:55
quantum consciousness stuff
17:57
midi-chlorians microtubules potato
18:00
potato anyway
18:01
perhaps we need to accept that Penrose
18:04
is beyond genre like if Gandalf had a
18:07
TARDIS and a lightsaber
18:09
by the way if anyone feels like drawing
18:11
Roger Penrose dressed as Gandalf with a
18:14
lightsaber and a TARDIS you would win the Internet